Algerian authorities have charged blogger Merzoug Touati with “exchanging intelligence with a foreign power”, over a publicly posted video interview he conducted with a spokesperson for the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

LADDH lawyer Ikken Sofiane toldAlgerian news site El-Watan that Touati was charged under article 71 of the Penal Code which prescribes a punishment of up to 20 years in jail for anyone convicted of “exchanging with agents of a foreign power intelligence which could harm the military or diplomatic status of Algeria or its vital economic interests.”

Merzoug Touati could face an additional 1-5 years in prison for “incitement to armed protests against the State.” His trial date has not been set yet.

Merzoug Touati. Photo shared on the Facebook page of his blog Alhogra

On 9 January, Touati posted on YouTube and on his blog Alhogra a video interview with Hassan Kaabia, the Israeli foreign ministry's spokesperson for Arabic-speaking media. The interview focused on the public response to the 2017 Finance Law, which includes an increase in value-added, income and property taxes, and a decrease in fuel subsidies. When the law went into effect on 1 January, strikes and riots erupted in the northern province of Bejaia and other parts of the country.

An Algerian government minister accused foreign powers of meddling in the country's affairs and orchestrating the protests. In the interview, Touati asked Kaabia about accusations made by an Algerian government. Kaabia denied any Israeli involvement.

Kaabia also told Touati that before 2000 there was “communication” between the Algerian and Israeli governments, but could not confirm if Algeria hosted a diplomatic office representing Israel in the past. Algeria and other Arab league governments, with the exceptions of Egypt and Jordan, do not officially recognize or have diplomatic relations with Israel due to the latter's occupation of Palestinian territories. However, some governments currently and in the past have maintained communication channels with or hosted offices representing Israel. Such relations are often kept secret by Arab governments due to the popular support to the Palestinian cause in the region.

On his blog Alhogra, Touati has consistently covered anti-austerity strikes and job protests, and rights violations committed by Algerian authorities. On 22 November, he posted an interview with Tilelli Bouhafs, whose father Slimane Bouhasf, is currently serving a three-year jail term on charges of insulting Islam in his online posts.

With the arrest of Touati, Algeria continues its crackdown on government critics and those peacefully exercising their right to free speech online. In December of 2016, this campaign cost the life of blogger Mohammad Tamalt who entered a coma after staging a two-month hunger strike in protest of his detainment for publishing on Facebook a poem critical of Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

On December 12, 42 year-old Algerian journalist and blogger Mohammad Tamalt was laid to rest in the capital Algiers. Tamalt entered a coma in late August after staging a two-month hunger strike in protest of his arrest.

His crime? Publishing on Facebook a poem and a video that contained comments that were deemed disparaging towards 79-year-old President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal.

On 11 July, a court in Algiers sentenced Tamalt to two years in jail and a fine of 200,000 Algerian dinars (about US $1,800) for offending Bouteflika and public institutions under articles 144, 144 bis and 146 of the Penal Code. His conviction was upheld by a court of appeal a month later.

Algerian authorities may seek to distance themselves from any responsibility in the death of Tamalt. In a statement, the country's prison service said that Tamalt had access to medical follow-up and medicines during his hunger strike, and that his health suddenly deteriorated following a lung infection detected on 4 December. Yet, it was the Algerian authorities that imprisoned and silenced Tamalt for good, to protect an ailing president, who has been in power since 1999, from criticism.

Ihsane EL Kadi an editor and journalist at the online media Maghreb Emergent wrote that the “Algerian political regime kills”:

The political regime in Algeria committed two mistakes, that are infamous in history. It imprisoned Mohamed Tamalt for an offense that should not lead to detention in 2016 in countries that respect the press and journalists. It continued to keep him in jail, even though his hunger strike [had] clearly put his health in danger since the end of July.

Supporters are also assigning responsibility to the British government, as Tamalt was a dual Algerian-British national. Sirine Rached, a North Africa researcher at the international human rights organization Amnesty tweeted:

This year alone, several Algerians including journalists and bloggers were prosecuted and jailed for expressing themselves online. In late May, labor rights activist Belkacem Khencha was sentenced to six months in jail for posting a video on Facebook slamming the imprisonment of a colleague, while in March human rights activist Zoulikha Belarbi was ordered to pay 100,000 Algerian dinars (around US $1,000) for posting a satirical photo of the president on Facebook.

Journalist Hassan Bouras is currently serving a one-year jail term for “insulting state institutions” on social media, after he was convicted on 28 November by a court of first instance in the Algerian province of El-Bayadh.

Hassan Bouras was convicted after publishing a video in which citizens denounced dubious police practices

Bouras, who is also a member of the Algerian League for Human Rights, has repeatedly faced judicial harassment for his rights activities and work as a journalist. On 2 October 2015, he was arrested from his home and spent more than three months in detention for “incitement to violence and revolt against the state” and “insulting state institutions.” In 2008, he was sentenced to two months in prison for reporting on corruption, and in 2003 he was sentenced to two years in jail for insulting state institutions and banned from practicing journalism for five years.

Tamalt has paid the highest price for speaking his mind freely. Will this force the Algerian government to acknowledge the high cost of silencing its critics, before more lives are lost or destroyed for a mere Facebook post? It remains to be seen precisely what cost this will bring for Algeria, and what changes it might make in response.

]]>https://globalvoices.org/2016/12/13/the-high-cost-of-algerias-crackdown-on-speech-life-and-freedom/feed/2‘The End of the World’: A Poet’s Journey from Syria to Algiershttps://globalvoices.org/2016/10/29/the-end-of-the-world-a-poets-journey-from-syria-to-algiers/
https://globalvoices.org/2016/10/29/the-end-of-the-world-a-poets-journey-from-syria-to-algiers/#respondSat, 29 Oct 2016 08:04:59 +0000https://globalvoices.org/?p=591695

Last year, on November 25, Dima Yousef, her mother, and two sisters landed in the Algerian capital. Her mother had decided that living in war-torn Syria was a gamble that the family could no longer risk.

Dima Yousef, a 30-year-old poet and Arabic language teacher, is the third of five siblings. Born and raised in Yarmouk refugee camp in the southern outskirts of Damascus, she belongs to a family uprooted from the Palestinian village of Hosheh, east of Haifa. The village had been the site of a fierce battle between the Arab Liberation Army and Haganah paramilitary forces in April 1948. It fell to the Haganah’s Carmeli Brigade on the 16th of that month, forcing all residents to flee either to neighboring villages or to Lebanon and later to Syria, where Dima’s grandparents settled.

A lone palm tree, a graveyard, and some ruins bear witness to what was once a peaceful agricultural community. Physically destroyed, Hosheh was revived through the stories and memories passed on by the survivors to the second and third generations of the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Zionist militias in 1948.

When Dima bid Damascus a final farewell, she was overwhelmed by the jarring sense of permanent loss and uprooting, the feeling experienced and often articulated by Nakba survivors in Yarmouk.

There are no regular power cuts and fuel shortages in Algiers, no random mortar shells or military checkpoints tearing the city asunder. Yet, somehow, Dima always felt “safer” in Damascus. “It would be ungrateful of me to complain or talk about nostalgia,” Dima told me. “I am lucky to be alive, to have a room of my own, but I miss everything about Damascus, even all those long days without electricity.”

Upon leaving Damascus, Dima could only fit her most precious belongings in her bag, including the books a dear friend had given her. But she left behind a heart torn in two: one piece lay in the timeless streets of Damascus’ Old City; the other remains in Yarmouk, or what is left of it.

Dima is eloquent in her vivid poetry, yet still struggles to put into words what she misses most about Yarmouk. She hasn’t been able to set foot in the camp for over three years, and deep down, she knows she will never go back again. She writes:

No, not just the streets, the alleys, the houses or my memories that are still floating there. Not just people’s faces, their clear eyes, their raw emotions and their astounding intimacy. These are not the only things I miss about Yarmouk.

Not just my father’s grave, the presence of which I haven’t gotten used to yet. Not only do I miss the things I used to possess, the things that were mine: my home, my family, my friends, my life.

Life! This is precisely what I miss the most when I think about the camp. Life, in all of its noise, its anguish, and its exhaustion. Yarmouk and its people were masterful at imbuing everything around them with life, pulse, warmth and spark.

‘Yarmouk never sleeps,’ this is what anyone who knew the camp used to say. It never slept as though it were scared of missing something. Yarmouk has always been true to this habit. And even when death arrived, Yarmouk stayed awake and missed none of it.

It was in July 2013, just before Syrian government forces imposed a full siege on the camp, that Dima and her family fled Yarmouk. Dima had to face so many losses: the high schoolers she used to teach, who were both her students and her friends in Yarmouk; her home in the camp, which was destroyed by shelling; and her father, who succumbed to his wounds in that same month after being shot by a sniper.

Death by a sniper, Dima would later conclude, is still more merciful than the slow death under siege.

In an untitled poem, translated by Fawaz Azem, Dima explains that her father “would have surely been destroyed by his indignation at seeing hunger rampaging on the bodies of the young, unstoppable!”

She goes on to say:

Thank you, bullet that claimed father’s life before it was claimed by indignation!

Thank you, sniper, who performed his ablution with his blood!

Thank you father’s blood, which brought closure to the scene!

In another cruel twist, Dima, then encouraged by friends to begin seriously contemplating the idea of publishing her first poetry collection, was arrested by Syrian security forces on November 27, 2014. The reason for her arrest was a complaint presented against her two years earlier. It stated that she was “active” on Facebook pages opposing the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Since the beginning of the Syrian uprising, Dima has been explicit in her support for peaceful protests and has spoken out against repression. Yet, she has never considered herself an activist, arguing that rejecting injustice and oppression is the natural thing to do, not a form of activism.

“I’m not a hero and what I faced in prison pales in comparison to what most detainees go through,” Dima reiterates. “You do not need to be a political activist to express solidarity with people under siege and shelling.”

Dima believes she was lucky not to have been tortured or humiliated like the others. She spent two weeks in detention, but knows that people can spend years and even die in Syrian prisons on the basis of reports linking them to political activism.

“A year ago today, I learned that there are places that God never visits,” Dima wrote on the first anniversary of her arrest, referring to the security branches run by the Syrian government.

Although she often preferred not to rub that unhealed wound, in an unpublished diary, titled “The End of the World,” Dima tried, for the first time, to articulate what her experience in detention was like.

“Now I know what the end of the world looks like,” she begins.

It is a wall covered with many scribblings and indecipherable words written by the prisoners; a wall filled with pleas and the counting of endless vanishing days; a wall that testifies to the voices of those who try to create noise out of the inaudible screams buried in their throats.

I would open my eyes and close them to a prayer scrawled in black large letters, as if the person who wrote it had tried to release all the darkness and indignation inside her through one last supplication.

On prison walls, so many women left their names behind like stains of blood. With an eyeliner forgotten in one woman’s pocket, the edge of a button, or with their nails, they scratched the harsh face of truth embodied by a prison wall upon which life begins and ends.

Or perhaps, they simply wrote down their names to make sure that they still exist and that their names have not been thrown into oblivion.

In her prison diaries, Dima also remembers the screams of tortured detainees — the screams that are too painful for “just one heart and two ears” to handle — the everyday “tricks” used by women to cope and survive, and the wait for prison doors to open, for the guard to call the names of those selected for release, and for the arrival of the “morning bus” — the bus that transfers detainees out of jail, “from a certain death to a possible life.”

She writes about her anger at being dragged to a corner by a prison guard and photographed by an officer, known as Abu Ali, without being allowed to smile.

“If only he’d let me smile, smile to all the faces of prisoners photographed for the last time of their life, by Abu Ali.”

During her two weeks in detention, Dima’s family insisted on maintaining utmost secrecy for fear of possible repercussions.

Dima, too, was reluctant to talk about her brief arrest due to the stigma associated with political detention and the fact that she was a public-sector employee in Syria.

For Dima Yousef, exile and imprisonment bear many similarities: the alienation, the loneliness, the uncertainty, and a feeling that time is frozen and that her life is on hold.

Dima is finding it hard to break free from the shackles of memory and longing just as she struggled after her release from prison.

Her free-verse poetry gives her strength and solace.

The fact that her poems are only published on her personal Facebook page means that Dima’s poetry has yet to receive the publicity or the readership it deserves. But thanks to Azem’s translations, the poems reached unexpected audience, when Chicago-based flautist Shanna Gutierrez adapted one into a musical composition.

“Songish” meant a lot to Dima, who is also a big fan of the flute. It reaffirmed her faith that poetry and music have the power to break borders she is forbidden from crossing, and to show the human face of a tragedy mostly reduced to numbers and geopolitical calculations.

In a journey that continues to be marked by uncertainty and marred by individual and collective losses, Dima has no idea where life will take her next. What she does know for certain is that distance is measured by heartbeats rather than miles. And Yarmouk lives in each and every heartbeat.

49 year-old Slimane Bouhafs blogs in support of religious minorities in Algeria.

On 6 September, an appeal court in the eastern Algerian city of Setif confirmed the conviction of activist Slimane Bouhafs for insulting Islam and prophet Muhammad on Facebook, while decreasing his jail sentence from five to three years.

On 7 August, a primary court sentenced him to five years in jail and a fine of 100,000 Algerian dinars (approximately US $900) for “offending the Prophet” and “denigrating the creed and precepts of Islam” under article 144 bis 2 of Algeria’s Penal Code. On appeal, the court of Appeals of Setif maintained his conviction, reduced his jail sentence to three years and dropped the fine.

Bouhafs, a Christian convert, and activist with the St. Augustine Coordination of Christians in Algeria which supports the rights of religious minorities in the country, regularly posts about the situation of Algeria's Christian minority on Facebook, his Google+ profile and personal blog. According to Amnesty International, he is also a supporter of the Movement for Self-Determination of Kabylia (MAK), an autonomous political group seeking autonomy for the region of Kabylia.

He was arrested on 31 July, over Facebook posts he published between May and June 2016. One of the posts reportedly cited as evidence against him was published on 21 June. In the post, Bouhafs shared a cartoon by the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo showing Prophet Muhammad crying with the following comment:

Muhammad cries because he lost in advance in Kabylia, but also in all of Algeria. His lie will disappear because the light of Christ is here, because he is peace, truth and the true path

The link to the Facebook post for which Bouhfsa reportedly went to jail currently shows no Charlie Hebdo cartoon. However, the same post along with the cartoon still appears on his blog.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both slammed Bouhafs’ arrest and conviction. The Algerian League for Human Rights (which appointed its lawyers to defend Bouhafs’ appeal) condemned the sentence for violating the Algerian constitution and international human rights standards, and called on the authorities to amend article 144 of the Penal Code which criminalizes insults to religion and state symbols. Algerian authorities repeatedly use this article to silence those who criticize the state or religion. Journalist Mohamed Tamalt is currently serving two years in jail for criticizing the country's president Abdelaziz Bouteflika in a poem he published on Facebook.

Algerian columnist and blogger Mohamed Tamalt, who is serving two years in prison for insulting the country's president, has gone into a coma. Tamalt has reportedly been on hunger strike since 27 June in protest at his arrest and imprisonment by Algerian authorities.

On 30 August, Sirine Rached, a North Africa researcher with Amnesty international, quoted local news site El Watan:

Journalist Mohamed Tamalt, sentenced to two years in jail for criticizing the authorities, is in coma

On 11 July, a court in the capital Algiers sentenced Tamalt to two years in jail and a fine of 200,000 Algerian dinars (about US $1,800) for offending President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and public institutions under articles 144, 144 bis and 146 of the Penal Code over his online publications, including a poem and a video posted on Facebook containing comments that were deemed disparaging towards Bouteflika and Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal.

Tamalt was imprisoned over his online publications including the above poem, which was deemed insulting to the President. Source: Tamalt's Facebook page

On social media and his online magazine Arab Context, Tamalt comments on current affairs in Algeria, including the role of the army in political life, alleged corruption among government officials and army generals, and the extravagant lifestyles of Algeria's rulers and their families. Tamalt, who also has British nationality, has been mostly living in the UK since 2002 after leaving Algeria because of reported threats related to his work as a journalist. A court of appeal confirmed his sentence on 9 August. According to Amnesty International, his lawyers filed another appeal to the Cassation Court, the highest court in Algeria.

In recent months, Algerian authorities have handed down several sentences against users for expressing themselves online. In late May, labor rights activist Belkacem Khencha was sentenced to six months in jail for posting a video on Facebook slamming the imprisonment of a colleague, while in March human rights activist Zoulikha Belarbi was ordered to pay 100,000 Algerian dinars (around US $1,000) for posting a satirical photo of the president on Facebook.

]]>https://globalvoices.org/2016/09/02/after-two-months-on-hunger-strike-jailed-algerian-journalist-enters-coma/feed/3When Never Forgetting the Attacks on France, Try to Remember the Heroes, Toohttps://globalvoices.org/2016/08/19/when-never-forgetting-the-attacks-on-france-try-to-remember-the-heroes-too/
https://globalvoices.org/2016/08/19/when-never-forgetting-the-attacks-on-france-try-to-remember-the-heroes-too/#commentsFri, 19 Aug 2016 07:16:45 +0000https://globalvoices.org/?p=582935For the past 18 months, Europe has seen a wave of attacks that has increased social tension and polarized many conversations on religion and immigration, especially in France. While the media's talking points these days seem to center around whether people should be allowed to wear burkinis at the beach, other newsworthy actions are quickly forgotten—extraordinary actions that help more to solidify France's social fabric than anything to do with swimwear. Global Voices looks at several heroic stories during the latest mass attacks on French soil.

Attacks in Nice on July 14, 2016

Franck, the hero of Nice. Photo: Twitter / @Pabliteau

Franck is 49 and a father of two. When Mohamed Lahouaiej Boulhel drove a truck in a crowd gathered for fireworks on Bastille Day in Nice, he was riding a scooter nearby and witnessed the start of the tragedy. In his own words, here is his recollection of what happened:

My wife and I were on the Promenade des Anglais on my scooter [the boardwalk where the attack occurred]. We were moving forward slowly. In fact, we wanted to go see the fireworks, but we left a bit too late. So I said to my wife, “It does not matter. We'll eat ice cream at the Cours Saleya [Saleya Square in Downtown Nice].” We felt a stampede was coming behind us. We heard shouts and a few cars that were trying to get away. My wife said, “Stop, there's something wrong.” By the time we turned around, we saw the crowd running in all directions, as if they were fleeing something. That's when we saw the truck coming.

We were in the middle of the road; there were few cars. I was riding the scooter at 60 kilometers [almost 40 miles] per hour. I didn't even had time to look in my rearview mirror. And then the truck passed right by us. He was driving on the sidewalk. I still have in mind the images of bodies flying everywhere. I immediately understood what was going on. I decided to accelerate. My wife was behind me pulling my arm and asking me what I was doing. I stopped. I told her to get off, and I drove away quickly to catch up with the truck.

In order to catch up, I had to zigzag between people, some dead and some alive. I wanted to stop him at all costs. I was both in a daze and lucid at once. So I managed to get on the left of the truck and my goal was to reach the cabin. I was soon on the steps at the open window, facing him. I hit him again and again and again with my left hand but I am right handed. I landed blows to his face but he said nothing. He did not even flinch.

Aymeric and Sam Monrocq, a couple who lives in Normandy, set up a crowdfunding website to buy a new scooter for Franck. The initiative raised 25,466 euros (almost $30,000). Franck used than a third of the money to purchase a new scooter, and he donated the rest to hospitals, local associations, and other initiatives.

Attacks in Paris on November 13, 2015

Ludovic Boumbas as published on twitter by his friend @chilavertlille

Ludovic Boumbas was 40 and an IT engineer based in Lille, France. He was sitting at the Bistro La Belle Equipe in Paris when Daesh militants opened fire on the restaurant. His friend was sitting with him, so he threw his body in front of her to protect her from the bullets. Ludovic died on the spot, while his friend was also shot, but she survived. Ludovic is originally from the Republic of Congo. His friends remember him fondly:

Friends described Mr Boumbas as someone who loved people and travelling. “He was just one of life’s good, good people,”

Nicolas Cantinat, 37, and Julien Galisson 32, reacted to the gunfire like Ludovic, shielding the people around then when the bullets rang out. Both Nicholas and Julien died from their wounds. At the Bataclan, the scene of the worst carnage that night, Sébastien, a 34-year-old man from Arles, was trying to escape from the killing spree when he saw a pregnant woman suspended at the window. She was pleading for people underneath to catch her, if she fell. The window was 15 meters (50 feet) from the ground. Sebastien recalls what happened next:

A pregnant woman was hanging outside a window and was begging people below her to catch her if she jumped. Down on the ground—it was chaos. I went through the other window and I clung onto an air vent to get to her at 15 meters above the ground. I held her for five minutes and then the exhausted woman asked me to help her back inside. So that's what I did.

The whole scene was caught on video:

Attacks in Paris on January 9, 2015

Lassana Bathily is from Mali. He was working at the Hyper Casher grocery store in Paris when Amedy Coulibaly, a member of Daesh, walked in with a rifle and killed four people, planning on murdering even more. Lassana hid at least six people and a baby in the cold room of the store and then went out of the storage room on his own to talk to Coulibaly. Here is a video of his testimony immediately following the ordeal:

During the attacks, Yoann Cohen, Bathily's coworker at the grocery store, tried to disarm the assailant and was consequently shot in the head by Coulibaly. Yoann's father hails from Algeria and his mother is from Tunisia.

These ordinary people did not expect the tragedies they encountered suddenly, and they responded instinctively and selflessly. In fact, there were numerous additional examples of acts of bravery during these attacks, ranging from a lone police officer entering taking on all the attackers at Bataclan to the people who opened their doors to stranded event goers.
As a populist rhetoric grows more deafening and the climate of fear seems to sweep much of Europe (especially in France), remembering these stories of altruism and sacrifice is more vital than ever.

Poster for the African Conference of Bloggers and Vloggers via Armelle. Used with her permission

Armelle Nina Sitchomareported on the first African Bloggers and Vloggers’ Festival (FABY, for its initials in French), which took place 3-5 June 2016 at La Place du Souvenir in Dakar, Senegal.

The blogger, who is from Douala, Cameroon, wrote on her website that the two-day festival attracted 36 of the “best” bloggers and vloggers from around Africa as well as other digital figures. They gave presentations on African digital content and the economic opportunities to be found on the African web.

The panels included well-known bloggers and vloggers such as Edith Brou from Ivory Coast, Yassine Massouath from Morocco, and Mountaga Cissé from Senegal, who spoke on the theme of “How to succeed on the internet: Job opportunities in an IT world.” Whilst Annie Payep from Cameroon, Ameyaw from Ghana, and Alexandre Lette and NK Thiat from Senegal led a workshop on “Ensuring quality content”.

The second day of the festival was dedicated to the future of video in Africa. Better visibility on the web requires a good internet connection. Marouane Boudiab from Algeria, El Oumar Diop from Senegal and Aphtal Cissé from Togo discussed “Improving connectivity in Africa”. Producing a video is all well and good, but it is even better to earn money from it. How can you earn money and promote your YouTube videos? Answers to this question were given by Nancie Mwai from Kenya, and by Lamine Mbengue and Assane Mbengue from Senegal.

African success stories, such as that of Aisha Dème of the website Agendakar, were shared with the audience. There were also exhibition stands featuring make up – Fashion from Sylvia Njoki (Kenya) and Mode & Beauté from Aba of Senegal – and cooking, video games, education and comedy were also covered and the first African Bloggers & Vloggers’ Festival

The Israeli Navy has intercepted the Swedish boat “The Marianne”, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, in International waters at 05:11 AM Gaza time (GMT +3) and forced it to redirect to the nearest Israeli port of Ashdod. The coalition was on its way to Gaza to deliver aid.

In a statement immediately afterward, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition accused the Israeli government of “state piracy in international waters’ as well as maintaining an ‘absolutely fruitless policy of no tolerance’.

At 02:06AM today (Gaza time) the “Marianne” contacted Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) and informed us that three boats of the Israeli navy had surrounded her in international waters, while sailing approximately 100NM from Gaza coast. After that we lost contact with the “Marianne” and at 05:11AM (Gaza time) the IDF announced that they had “visited and searched” Marianne. They had captured the boat and detained all on board “in international waters” as they admitted themselves. The only positive content in the IDF announcement was that they still recognize that there is a naval blockade of Gaza, despite Netanyahu’s government recent denial that one exists.

[…]

It is disappointing that the Israeli government chose to continue the absolutely fruitless policy of “no tolerance”, meaning it will continue to enforce an inhumane and illegal collective punishment against 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza. Israel's repeated acts of state piracy in international waters are worrying signs that the occupation and blockade policy extends to the entire eastern Mediterranean. We demand that the Israeli government cease and desist the illegal detainment of peaceful civilians traveling in international waters in support of humanitarian aid.

We call on our governments to ensure that all passengers and crew from the “Marianne” are safe, and to strongly protest against the violation of international maritime law by the Israeli state. We call on all civil society organizations to condemn the actions of Israel. People all over the world will continue to respond and react to this injustice, as will we, until the port of Gaza is open and the siege and occupation is ended.

Speaking from one of the boats, Ehab Lotayeh of the ‘Canadian Boat to Gaza’ team confirmed that the Marianne was intercepted:

The Marianne was intercepted by the Israelis a few hours ago and our understanding now is that it is being taken to Ashdod.

Robert Lovelace, former Algonquin chief in Canada, instructed the Freedom Flotilla Coalition's social media team to upload the following video as a call for help in the case of an Israeli intervention. He had previously written an op-ed explaining why he joined the Freedom Flotilla.

The Freedom Flotilla was expected by Gazans who organized events and took to Twitter to welcome the crew members.

Meanwhile, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, launched a propaganda campaign aiming at discrediting the flotilla, accusing the Freedom Flotilla of ‘hypocrisy’ and calling the blockade of Gaza ‘legal under international law’. Note that the map of Israel released by the prime minister includes the occupied Palestinian territories, East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Netanyahu also said that “this flotilla is nothing but a demonstration of hypocrisy and lies that is only assisting the Hamas terrorist organisation and ignores all of the horrors in our region.”

The crew members were from 15 different countries including four European Union countries (Sweden, France, Spain and Greece); five MENA countries (Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria); Norway; USA; Canada; Turkey; New Zealand and Russia.

Most of the remaining crew members were doctors. They were divided in four boats named Marianne, Rachel, Vittorio and Juliano named after well-known peace activists Rachel Corrie, Vittorio Arrigoni and Juliano Mer-Khamis (full list).

The impact of the hostilities in Gaza cannot be assessed separately from the blockade imposed by Israel. The blockade and the military operation have led to a protection crisis and chronic, widespread and systematic violations of human rights, first and foremost the rights to life and to security, but also to health, housing, education and many others. In accordance with international human rights law, Israel has obligations in relation to these rights and must take concrete steps towards their full realization. In that context, while fully aware of the need for Israel to address its security concerns, the commission believes that the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism, put in place with the assistance of the United Nations to accelerate efforts to rebuild destroyed houses and infrastructure, is not a substitute for a full and immediate lifting of the blockade.

Global Voices has been documenting the latest updates from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition in a CheckDesk story available here. We are currently contacting crew members of the Flotilla for an upcoming post.

]]>https://globalvoices.org/2015/06/29/israel-intercepts-international-gaza-bound-freedom-flotilla/feed/2Herve Cornara's Relatives Want Him to Be Remembered as a Great Guy, Not the Beheaded Victim of a Lunatichttps://globalvoices.org/2015/06/28/herve-cornaras-relatives-want-him-to-be-remembered-as-a-great-guy-not-the-beheaded-victim-of-a-lunatic/
https://globalvoices.org/2015/06/28/herve-cornaras-relatives-want-him-to-be-remembered-as-a-great-guy-not-the-beheaded-victim-of-a-lunatic/#commentsSun, 28 Jun 2015 10:31:48 +0000http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=529179

Herve Cornara – via @ldecrion CC-BY-20

Herve Cornara was the manager of ATC, a delivery company in Chassieu in the suburbs of Lyon, France. More importantly, he was a father of a young man and loved by his relatives and colleagues.

Cornara was killed and beheaded by Yassin Salhi next to a ISIS flag at a factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, in the Isère region. Salhi is a truck driver and father of three. He was born in Pontarlier, France; his mother now lives in Morocco and his late father was Algerian.

]]>https://globalvoices.org/2015/06/28/herve-cornaras-relatives-want-him-to-be-remembered-as-a-great-guy-not-the-beheaded-victim-of-a-lunatic/feed/1Francophone Africa Is the New Land of Opportunity for the French Media Industryhttps://globalvoices.org/2015/06/12/francophone-africa-is-the-new-land-of-opportunity-for-the-french-media-industry/
https://globalvoices.org/2015/06/12/francophone-africa-is-the-new-land-of-opportunity-for-the-french-media-industry/#commentsFri, 12 Jun 2015 09:25:35 +0000http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=518972

A woman in tears in a screen capture of a scene from the trailer for the film Timbuktu

The Francophone film industry has experienced a nice boost recently thanks to the success of a few recent films, including “Timbuktu” by Mauritanian filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako and the Malagasy documentary “Ady Gasy“.Other successful projects have showcased the undeniable growth of the sector in the region: “Les Chevaux de Dieu” (God's horses) from Morocco, “La Pirogue” (The Boat) from Senegal, “The River” from Algeria and “Angano Angano” from Madagascar.

While the France-based film industry is having a hard time finding prosperity worldwide, the African continent may turn out to be its saving grace. In fact, that observation could be expanded to the entire French media industry. Still, while the continent is a land of growing opportunities for the sector, the media market still has a few shortcomings that hinder its development.

French media producers realized the potential as early as the 2000s and have tried to develop the market. Several collaborations emerged between French channels TV5 and CanalSat and West African TV channels. Following the steps of these pioneers, other French TV networks such as the music channel Trace TV decided to install a local agency in the region. That decision proved to be judicious for Trace TV as Africa represents one-third of its turnover today. Trace TV is even looking into expanding its network into mobile phone and radio.

Despite these successes, there are still very few French companies that have dared to fully embrace the opportunities the continent has to offer. The window might be closing soon though because media groups from China and North America have seized the opportunity.

An elusive market for French media entrepreneurs

So why the hesitation from French entrepreneurs? While French media seems like a natural linguistic fit for the region, the potential hurdles seem to have given them reason to pause: political instability, corruption and missing infrastructure are some of the reasons that leading groups have mentioned. But the opportunity loss might be too great to ignore now. Jérôme Bodin, a French media analyst, opines:

If France wants to increase its global influence, it must promptly initiate a reform of its media in order to emerge as an impactful media player. A country cannot claim to have an influence on world affairs without a strong media and cultural strategy to boot. The competitiveness of French television network has collapsed since the early 2000s, especially compared to their German and US peers.

Even French politicians have chimed in with solutions. On September 11, 2014, the French National Assembly conducted a session on what policies to apply in order to have better penetration in the African audiovisual market. French member of parliament Bernard Chaussegros suggested that the current business model needs rethinking. He opined that instead of subsidizing organizations and businesses, France should promote cooperation between locals and French groups. This approach might allow for a faster introduction in the region, he argued.

But it seems that the French media have finally awakened from their stupor and have overcome their hangups. For instance, the Lagardère media group has set up a television production office in Dakar, Senegal. In October 2014, Canal+, a French media consortium, launched A+, a channel dedicated to the African continent with the ambition to become “the Top African Channel.” Following this lead, Euronews will propose in 2015 Africanews, a pan-African multilingual information channel.

At a time when European economies are stagnating, Africa seems to be the continent to invest in for broadcasting companies. France also has to overcome a dubious past. Its influence on the African continent has been often scrutinized and filled with controversy. It comes to reason that France's attempt to expand its cultural influence in Africa casts doubts on its agenda. Either way, the competition for media market will be fierce, especially in IT, and it will require a great deal of work to find a place in this new gold rush.

From exposing corruption among the ruling elite to denouncing odd practices in Algerian society, the satirical TV show ”Eldjazairia Weekend” has as many supporters as it does opponents.

Up until a few weeks ago, in its signature irreverent and snarky style, the show aired every Friday evening on El Djazaïria, a private television channel in Algeria. On April 24, the Eldjazairia Weekend team were forced to bid farewell to their TV audience. They were in tears.

Semmar, who is also a Global Voices contributor, co-hosts the show with journalists Karim Kardache, Mustapha Kessaci and actor Merouane Boudiab. Semmar has vowed that an online version of the program will soon be launched to counter this act of censorship.

Besides Algerie-Focus, Semmar is a member of Envoyés Spéciaux Algériens. If you are familiar with these outlets, you can probably guess the tone of Eldjazairia Weekend.

Why ‘Eldjazairia Weekend’ was stopped

It seems things came to a head on April 17 when Abdou Semmar questioned the wealth and Parisian apartments of several Algerian ministers and Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal's daughter. His information was based on the book “Paris-Alger, une histoire passionnelle” (Paris-Algiers, a passionate history), by a French journalist who claims that Sellal's daughter paid for her flat in Paris with money from dubious origins.The government's reaction was immediate and included a phone call from the prime minister, according to Algerie Focus.

The video below shared by Algerian netizens on YouTube is entitled “This is why ‘Eldjazairia Weekend’ was stopped.” It shows the segment of the show that is suspected to have caused the ire of authorities and cancellation of the program.

The next one shows the last minute of the last episode of the program where we can see Abdou crying along with the rest of his colleagues.

The rest of the video shows details of the administrative proceedings, including warnings by the audiovisual regulation authority and direct interventions by the Telecommunication Ministry with requests for the channel to change the form and content of the show and to fire Abdou.

The channel and journalists yielded to their demands. However, authorities subsequently refused to acknowledge their role in the cancellation of the show and insisted that the decision was purely internal. In fact, the decision was officially announced by the channel itself on its Facebook page. In a public statement, El Djazairia TV stated that the show stopped temporarily and will resume after Ramadan in a new format and that they only received oral warnings, not unlike any other television channels in the country.

Call to protest

That decision stirred indignation among the Algerian public and journalists, who expressed their support to the team of ‘Eldjazairia weekend’. International organisations such as Reporters without Borders also denounced the cancellation of the broadcast and called for the immediate reinstatement of the show. A protest was scheduled to take place on May 1. However, most private Algerian TV channels did not respond to the call for protest with only El Watan speaking up in support of Abdou and his colleagues. Only one parliamentarian Habib Zeggat dared to challenge the authorities and express his sorrow over the state of freedom of expression in Algeria, specifically focusing on the ‘Eldjazairia weekend’ case in his speech.

Incidents like this are not new in Algeria. Abdou has covered many stories where bloggers were imprisoned for merely criticizing the regime or calling for a democratic election.

After the protest, Abdou spoke to many media outlets, mainly French ones, to expose the truth behind the decision to cancel the show. Abdou regretted the lack of solidarity among Algerian media but lauded international media for their full support.

The World Intellectual Property Day, an event organised by the World Intellectual Property Organization, is held on April 26 of every year to “celebrate innovation and creativity.” The rights granted by intellectual property laws, such as copyright, are meant to draw a balance between the rights of creators to make a living out of their craft, and the rights of members of society to have fair access to these cultural works. One of the ways in which this balance is achieved is by making copyright law last for a temporary period of time and not forever.

When the term of copyright protection expires, the work enters the public domain. Works in the public domain can be copied, shared, and translated by any person for free and without the need to seek anyone's permission. It is very important for us to have access to freely available public domain works because they make up many of the building blocks that we use to create new cultural and scientific works.

Figuring out how when this term expires can be a difficult task because it differs from one country to the next and varies depending on the work in question. For example, books and other literary works are protected in the Arab World from the moment the work is created for the entire lifetime of the author plus 25, 50, or 70 years after his death.

Duration of copyright protection of books

The majority of Arab countries protect books for the lifetime of the author plus 50 years after his death as a result of their international obligations under the TRIPS and the Berne Convention. Bahrain, Morocco, and Oman provide a longer copyright term than the rest as a result of their signature of a free trade agreement with the United States, not too different from the infamous TPP currently in the works.

The term could be more complicated for different kinds of works. For example, even though the majority of Arab countries protect photographs for the same duration as books, some countries provide a shorter term of protection for photographs that is calculated from the moment the photograph is taken or published.

Duration of copyright protection of photographs

The charts above show that calculating copyright term is complicated. For example, “Afghan Girl” by Steve McCurry was taken in 1984 and published in National Geographic in 1985. The photo has been in the pubic domain in Libya since 1991, in Saudi since 2010, in Yemen since 2011, and remains protected by copyright in all countries where the term is linked to the lifetime of the author because Steve McCurry is still alive.

Should countries that have a shorter term make everyone's life easier and extent their protection to match those that protect copyright for the longest period? The argument often presented by those who support a longer copyright term is that the author of the work spent time and effort to give birth to his work and therefore deserves to have his work protected in a manner that makes it possible for him to make the profit he deserves, which should consequently encourage him to create more works.

The argument against extending copyright terms is that there is no evidence that authors would feel more incentivised to create new works if copyright granted protection for their work for 70 years instead of 50 after their death. On the contrary, users in countries such as Bahrain, Morocco, and Oman are clearly disadvantaged by the longer term because they have to wait for 20 years longer than their Arab neighbours before universities, students, and other users can legally copy, translate, and use old works. This 20 years difference can easily make sectors that rely on copyright, such as the education and entertainment industry, more expensive to operate than their neighbours.

This is not to say that things are perfect in countries where the protection lasts for the lifetime of the author plus only 50 years, this duration is already too long and practically means that works created by others during our lifetime is not likely to join the public domain except after we die. Copyright laws in the Arab world provide exceptions that allow users in certain circumstances to copy and utilise works without the permission of the author, but no Arab country has a “fair use” exception and the existing exceptions are limited and do not satisfy the needs of the users of creative works on the internet.

Arab countries should not extend the length of their copyright term without thinking of the consequences that this will have on the ability of society to access knowledge and culture. Additional protection does not necessarily mean a greater incentive for authors to create and certainly does not create a better copyright system.

Moroccan authorities thought they finally had a success story to showcase for their new immigration policy. Then everything fell apart.

Earlier this month, Morocco announced that it had successfully implemented a special program to regularize migrants. The authorities announced that 27,000 requests for regularization were being processed and that 60 percent of the cases had been approved.

Every year, hundreds of African immigrants make their way to areas near Melilla, one of two Spanish enclaves in the north of Morocco, in the hope of jumping the border fence to make their way to Europe.

On February 10, Morocco started to dismantle migrant camps near Melilla at the Spanish border in order to expel migrants out of the country. In the process, Human Rights groups report that local forces were using violence to round up migrants who were trying to migrate to Spain.

The practice of summarily expelling migrants at the border with Algeria appears to have stopped. However, research in late January and early February 2014 in Oujda, Nador, and Rabat indicates that Moroccan security forces are still using violence against migrants expelled from Melilla.

The following video upload on to Vimeo a month ago by the Human Rights Association Pro.De.In. Melilla shows the remains of the camps after they were dismantled:

The association also reports that hundreds of migrants were bused to an unknown destination. Hicham Rachidi, General Secretary of a Moroccan Defense of the Migrant Association (GADEM) writes in a blog post that he does not understand why there was a sudden rush to dismantle the camps when progress was being made:

Just when we showed the national and international press that our police forces provided “humane and compassionate treatment” to migrants who were rescued from drowning and rejected by Spain and that at the same time, just when we announced the “glorious” numbers of the regularization program, several cleaning operations were launched against the tranquillos (camps) that housed hundreds of migrants in Gourougou. The standard procedures were abused, justice was denigrated, the law and the dignity of children, women and men were scorned.

Screen capture of African migrants at the Gurugú Camp from the video above.

The Terre d'Asile (Land of Haven) organization collected a few testimonies from migrants. Sylvain, a migrant from Côte d'Ivoire recalls what happened in Melilla on that day:

Upon our arrest, we were surrounded by soldiers. There were six buses waiting for us, we were ordered to climb up in the buses. Then we drove for several hours into the desert. We had no indication of where we were going. We were ushered into a sort of house with seven rooms. It did not look like a prison, more like a detention camp. Then we were separated. In my cell, we are twelve Ivorians in a room of about 15 square meters.

In the course of the day, between 20 and 30 buses left for Southern Morocco and distributed the Gurugu detainees around a dozen different cities: Errachidia, Goulmina, El Jadida, Safi, Kelaat, Sraghna, Chichaoua, Tiznit, Essaouira, Youssoufia, Agadir. Up until now, most people remained imprisoned in different houses, they are given food and clothing. Although they are being told that they will be freed soon, and that the Moroccan state is only taking their ID in order to regularize them, it seems more like the Gurugu inhabitants will be deported [..] In this operation, Morocco has violated many of its own laws, including the arrest of minors, the absence of individual case-by-case evaluation, or the detention of people over more than 24h without giving any reason.

The European Commission has raised concerns about how Morocco is handling the migrants’ health and well-being.

]]>https://globalvoices.org/2015/02/17/moroccan-forces-accused-of-abuse-towards-sub-saharan-migrants/feed/1They Are Not Charlie: They Torture, Jail and Kill Journalists in Their Own Countrieshttps://globalvoices.org/2015/01/11/they-are-not-charlie-they-torture-jail-and-kill-journalists-in-their-own-countries/
https://globalvoices.org/2015/01/11/they-are-not-charlie-they-torture-jail-and-kill-journalists-in-their-own-countries/#commentsSun, 11 Jan 2015 21:32:42 +0000http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=504462

2 million people arrived in Paris for the Marche Republicaine organized by the French government against the terrorism due to the double attack of Wednesday and Thursday. 17 people and 3 terrorists died. Photograph by Matteo Pellegrinuzzi. Copyright: Demotix

World leaders and politicians, particularly those from the Middle East and North Africa, came under fire for their double standards in supporting freedom of speech in France, while stifling freedoms and killing and jailing journalists in their own countries.

More than 40 world leaders and top officials and politicians from around the world joined about 1.6 million people as they marched in Paris today [January 11] to denounce the terror attacks on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket. The attacks, over three days, have left 17 people dead in France, including cartoonists and police officers. More than 3.7m people are estimated to have marched across the country today, making the rallies the largest in the nation's history. Similar but smaller solidarity gatherings were held in Cairo, Beirut, New York and Madrid, to name a few, in support of freedom of expression.

The presence of world leaders at the forefront of the Paris rally, which began at the Place de la Republique and ended at the Place de la Nation, in which marchers chanted liberte [freedom] and Charlie, drew much criticism on social media, especially since some of those leaders were among the world's worst free speech offenders.

We will be telling our children mind-boggling stories about today's rally. Terrorists and those suppressing freedom of speech took part in a rally against terrorism and in support of freedom of speech!

Reporters without Borders described world leaders at the event as “predators,” whose presence was appalling. It issued a statement saying:

On what grounds are representatives of regimes that are predators of press freedom coming to Paris to pay tribute to Charlie Hebdo, a publication that has always defended the most radical concept of freedom of expression?

Reporters Without Borders is appalled by the presence of leaders from countries where journalists and bloggers are systematically persecuted such as Egypt (which is ranked 159th out of 180 countries in RWB’s press freedom index), Russia (148th), Turkey (154th) and United Arab Emirates (118th).

Even before the rally started, Palestinian Yousef Munayyer tweets to his 22.2K followers:

This Paris rally is shaping up to be a who's who of world leaders who have suppressed their own journalists

Iyad El-Baghdadi, who was jailed and exiled from the UAE, found a few more punchlines to add to his Arab Tyrants Manual, which he started writing after the start of the so-called Arab Spring. Among them is:

Attend a peace rally to denounce terrorism, then go back home to oppress some people in the name of fighting terrorism. #ArabTyrantManual

Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi is taking part in the Paris rally against terrorism

According to the Washington Post, a seven-minute video emerged today in which one of the gunmen who attacked the kosher supermarket posthumously claimed the IS's responsibility for the attack. In the video, Amedy Coulibaly pledges allegiance to the IS leader Al Baghdadi.

MENA Love Map is seeking stories of love during the so-called Arab Spring. Their goal is to collect and publish “100 love stories from around the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to show the world that the Arab Uprisings brought about unique social change.” They want your contribution.

The brainchild of a fiercely anonymous couple, who themselves are lovers who met during this period, this is their story.

Maya Norton (MN): I know you want to remain anonymous. What can you tell us about yourself?

Mena Love Map (MLM): We will remain anonymous until we gather 100 stories. We are two bloggers and lovers from different countries in MENA who crossed roads after the revolutions [of the Arab Spring] and decided to fight together in our different causes and support each other. That's why we believe the uprisings in our region should be approached as an opportunity rather than only as crises.

MN: When you say “love stories,” do you mean romantic ones or also good news that happened as a result of the Arab Spring?

MLM: We really detest the expression “Arab Spring.” We think it is a Western creation to decide our fate. What we mean by “love stories” is anything that was inspired, influenced, came as a result of or spanned around the post-2010 movements in our region, when new hopes started to arise and new forms of resistance manifested, resistance by demonstrating, but also resistance by love.

MN: How did the idea for MENA Love Map originate?

MLM: The idea originated from our love for each other, joining hands in our struggles and fighting for our causes in the region. We started discussing the idea last summer during the war in the Gaza Strip, in Iraq, the coup in Egypt, the continuous massacre in Syria, etc. It really reached its peak this summer where everything was fucked up and overwhelming in the region, generating only desperation.

We thought: we are strong with our power to love, to support each other beyond the borders despite what our countries are enduring, and [we] succeeded to continue the fight for hope, determination and [with a] big smile on the face. We thought: we are definitely not the only lovers who had this opportunity to meet, unite, and fall in love because of indeed those same crises in the region. We want to diffuse the love energy to our fellows in the region.

MN: What will the lovers map look like?

MLM: The main idea of the map will be to click on [the] countries where there is a story that can link to points of meetings of lovers beyond borders. You know, the concept of borders is very important in the MENA [region], especially in countries, for example, like Bahrain, Syria, Libya, Egypt, and others who left their countries as refugees and cannot come back.
So the mapping is really about crossing borders and [being] able to meet your lover on the other end of the Mediterranean or any other ocean.

MN: What is the ultimate goal of the website?

MLM: The website is just a platform to collect, document, and diffuse. Our aim is the process of collecting, telling, and sharing these stories by lovers themselves.

Thanks to MENA Love Map's founders to agreeing to the interview. If you don't have a love story to contribute but are interested in helping out with the project, you can sign up to volunteer.